


Kaleidoscope Eyes

by TheBarghestsNotebook



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-12 20:05:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15347664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheBarghestsNotebook/pseuds/TheBarghestsNotebook
Summary: The reader has a set of special abilities and unfortunately the time has come for SHIELD to collect them. They don't want to be found, and it's getting harder for them to stay free. Especially when they're more an average Joe and dealing with assassins and super heroes wasn't their plan for their week.





	1. Green is for Equations

**Author's Note:**

> Can you tell what kinds of powers I enjoy?

An ambush isn’t exactly an ambush when you know it’s coming. But even then it’s kind of hard to avoid. At least it gives you the advantage of not getting your ass kicked. If there was anything to my name it would have been my ability to find my way out of any sort of bad situation I found myself in. Call it luck, call it fortune, call it the weird ability to minorly change the mathematical probability of the universe to suit your needs when you needed it to. And I do mean minorly because majorly would mean that I would get out of this ambush without a scratch and be a complete badass through it. Instead, minorly meant that I knew that an ambush was happening about four seconds before it actually happened because one of the people who was planning on jumping me managed to scratch their boot on the fire escape so I had the time it took them to leap over the edge and fall next to me to react. Which, when you think about it, is really fucking helpful because damn, the person had long red hair that wasn’t in a ponytail or bun. And if you have long hair going into a fight then you’re either crazy or you have your entire life planned out and you’re not worried about a damn thing.

And whoever this was they really had their life together because damn she scared the piss out of me real quick. I leapt back fast enough to not get hit with her first strike and then spent the good later of the next thirty seconds trying not to die because I had seen this woman on tv and I knew her thighs were the thighs of death. And as cool as it would have been to go out like that, I did not want to actually go out like that. Like, in my sleep painlessly or of old age or something quick like a bullet to the head.

And not an arrow to the head because I really managed a saving throw there because apparently there was two of them now. I guess it was taking longer to take me out than it should have because now they were taking out the big guns...er, arrows.

I guess we were playing hardball now, then.

You don’t just fight the Black Widow, you try your best to defend yourself against her. And this was going to have to be a deck that I stack in my favor. So I had to push it. Just enough to make it so that her hits weren’t that hard or just off enough that they didn’t hit the right place. Have us move in ways that kept her from being able to get in the right position to use her scissor thighs of hell. Keep moving so that the archer in the sky couldn’t get a good enough shoot or make it look like he didn’t need to. Whatever I was doing, whatever the universe was doing to keep things going in a way that didn’t completely wreck me, well, it was getting exhausting and I needed to get out.

So, why not push just a bit more to make it so that I could. 

Land wrong, Ms. Romanoff, your ankle will feel that in the morning I’m sure.

I darted passed her and the arrow that should have hit my leg was a bit too far forward and grazed it instead. Still burned and stung like a motherfucker and reminded me that I never wanted to ever have that happen to me again, but there we go. 

The street was busier than it should have been, it seemed like the lights were playing favorites and the stop and go became really stop or really go. This was New York, no one really knew how to drive anyway so that was a bit better for me. I weaved through the cars, never actually jumping over or on them because that’s how you become a very obvious target to dear Hawkeye and I really didn’t want that to happen. So it was trying not to be roadkill instead by acting like a bird or a squirrel or any other critter that didn’t want to get run over. I swear I must have been really pushing it. Like really pushing it. I could feel my head hurting at this point. Or maybe that was just the stress. Maybe.

I ducked between two buses as they came to a stop and slipped on one of them, pulling the perfect amount of change out of my pocket, apologizing to the bus driver, and hiding in the crowd of people getting off the late shift from work. 

The doors closed and we started moving just as the Black Widow almost got on. But you know the bus drivers, they have schedules to keep and if you aren’t there then they’re not going to wait for you. And a lot of bodies on a rainy night meant that there was enough steam on the windows that you couldn’t see in or out. So being able to turn to someone and tell them to switch jackets with you was made a better possibility and an easier get away.

After all that, I was really going to need to stress eat.


	2. Red is for Charisma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The reader is taking a well deserved morning breakfast in the National Mall and having some nice peace and quiet. Until they meet the Star Spangled Man with a Plan and can't keep their mouth shut.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, seriously, can you guess what my favorite super power is?

There was something about enjoying breakfast on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that made starting the day so much easier. There were very few people up that early and it made things such much nicer and calmer. I had finally managed to keep my paranoia to a minimum. Maybe it was because I had managed to stay under the radar for a few weeks. Maybe it was because I had just spent ten minutes with my focus on a man who kept running laps around, probably, the city and seemed to be doing it in record time. And he wasn’t tired, maybe a bit out of breath, but damn.

Oh, wait, maybe it was because that dude with the body of a god was Captain America.

I watched him for a bit in fascination. Broad shoulders that could definitely carry a human across. And you never think about how someone runs until you see them run and damn did Rogers run weirdly. Like, not like a normal human being.

After a while, like a long while, he finally stopped running and came to a stop at the bottom of the Memorial to catch his breath.

“You want some water?” I called down to him. I don’t know what made me want to yell at him. He was an Avenger after all and I was pretty sure I was wanted by the government at that point. But, he looked like he could use a drink.

He looked up at me, kind of surprised to see another person out so early.

“Don’t normally see you around here,” he said, walking up the steps.

“Yeah, decided to start my day off early.” I held up an unopened water bottle because of course Captain America wasn’t going to take water from a stranger. But, then again, maybe I could just keep playing around that I didn’t know who he was. You never recognize celebrities in public, after all. 

He took the bottle, but I still don’t know if it was because he was being polite or not.

“There aren’t like...a bunch of you, right?” I asked. “Cause I swear I’ve seen you run passed these steps in the last three minutes going in the same direction.”

“Nope, all me,” he said, shaking his head with a small smile.

“Really? Damn, mate. What are you eating? Like nothing but protein or something?”

He shook his head again, “Nah, just any old diet. Eat right and workout and you’re good.”

And then we just talked. It was nice, to just talk to someone and not be afraid that they were going to rip your head off. I mean, Rogers could totally rip my head off if he wanted to, but I really hoped he didn’t want to. Like, really hoped. He’d seemed to not know who I was, so that was good. We talked about stupid things, thing about normal life. Nothing about his job, mostly about around the city and the food and shops. About how gas prices were rising and about TV shows and books and movies. We talked for a long time, the sun had risen and people and filtered into the mall. A few stopped and tried to take pictures, but I didn’t pay attention to them. I didn’t ask. Why should I treat him as famous? Sure, dude saved the world, but I survived getting attacked by assassins so there we go.

His phone went off as the mall really became crowded. He fished it out of his pocket and answered. He listened intently. Must have been work.

Watching his face fall told me all I needed to know. He placed his phone back into his pocket and looked around.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” he sighed. “It was nice talking to you and all but…”

“You gotta go?”

“Yeah, I have a thing I need to deal with.”

“Oh, okay, well,” I held out my hand for a shake goodbye. There was a split second where I knew he was contemplating taking it or not. He reached back and we shook. “Have a good day, okay?”

“Yeah, you too,” he replied. I knew he didn’t mean it. At least his eyes were full of remorse. He turned to leave.

“Oh, uh, one more thing,” i said, catching his attention. When he looked back, I said, “You’re going to protect me.”

The biggest leap I had taken was right there. I didn’t know if it would work, he was the Captain America after all, but I had to try. I wouldn’t have been able to find a safe place fast enough. I needed help.

He paused, his lips parting for a moment. “We need to go, now.”

We immediately took off, down the steps of the memorial and  across the mall, taking the very obvious note about how empty it had suddenly become. I had never felt so open. There were enough buildings for a sniper to sit and I wouldn’t put it past anyone to have the guy with the arrows up in a tree somewhere. And of course there were helicopters, we could hear them in the air behind us. 

Steve’s phone kept going off as we ran. Glancing over, I saw him throw it away. One way to not answer calls. That’s when the bullets started hailing down on us. We were just fast enough to have enough of a head start that we didn’t get ripped to pieces immediately. And thank my stars that affecting others wasn’t my only ability because I would not have been able to keep up otherwise. We managed to get underneath the trees before the helicopters were right on top of us. Steve grabbed me and pulled me close as he covered me as we took refuge for a moment. Let them get ahead of us for a moment and then break in a different direction. Keep to cover, keep low, keep out of sight.

He waited only for me to take a few seconds to catch my breath before we started running again. I’m so glad I didn’t trip because that would have been embarrassing and literally the end of my career.

“We need to find a crowd,” he said when we were about to break from the trees and have to run across the street. There was almost no one around and the only cars moving were no doubt out to get us. Man, this was stressful. How did Steve do this like every other day? If I had a chance I was going to ask him because dang, not good your heart or skin. 

But apparently being thrown over a moving car was good enough to make me not think about the future and instead focus on the very immediate present. I managed to roll after landing and not twist and ankle. By the time I was up Steve was at my side again and we were getting closer to a point where they could stop shooting at us via helicopters and instead just shoot at us from everywhere else. So that was good.

When we finally did break into the growing chaos of the crowd, I knew I couldn’t keep running. I turned to look at Rogers.

“Thank you,” I said to him.

If it was one thing I could do, it was being able to disappear into a mass of people. I did it with the assassins, and luck was on my side now that I wasn’t focused on keeping Captain America as an ally. And so I left him, confused and looking around. I wasn’t happy about using him, but I needed to stay alive and free.


End file.
